User menu

About USU

The mission of the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences is to educate, train, and comprehensively prepare uniformed services health professionals, scientists, and leaders to support the Military and Public Health Systems, the National Security and National Defense Strategies of the United States, and the readiness of our Uniformed Services.

Academics

Since our first graduating class in 1982, the USU's MDs. Nurses and graduates in biomedical sciences provide exceptional service through service in the U.S. Military and civilian careers of distinction. Today, America's Medical School has 691 enrolled students and 5,043 graduates. Over 1,300 graduates in Biomedical Sciences lead aggressive research in medical research. Today's 663 graduates of the School of Nursing blend science, research and field training in advanced practice and PhD degrees. The USU's Postgraduate Dental College provides advanced degree's to the military's dental community, graduating 72 students since establishment.

Research At USU

The University's research program covers a range of clinical and other topics important to both the military and public health. Infectious diseases, trauma medicine, health maintenance, and cancer are areas of particular strength. Researchers are also making important new efforts in state-of-the-art fields that cut across disciplines, such as genomics, proteomics, and drug-delivery mechanisms.

Centers

USU is home to many different Centers and Institutes, which help advance the university's research, education and public service missions. Faculty members and students collaborate with other leading experts at USU's Centers and Institutes on projects that push incredible boundaries across manifold disciplines of biomedical science. Their work is shaping military medicine and world health in many positive, powerful ways.

Military At USU

The USU's military unique curriculum is supported by military professions from all services who teach USU's military and civilian students. All military personnel are supported by the USU Brigade, the Brigade staff are managed by the Military Personnel Office.

AFRRI At USU

AFRRI mission is to preserve the health and performance of U.S. military personnel and to protect humankind through research that advances understanding of the effects of ionizing radiation.

To these ends, the institute collaboratively researches the biological effects of ionizing radiation and provides medical training and emergency response to manage incidents related to radiation exposure.

You are here

AFRRI

Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute

AFRRI Scientists

AFRRI scientists publish original research articles in scientific journals, contributing to the general knowledge of the effects of ionizing radiation on living organisms. The research is critical to the Department of Defense for force protection and also contributes to the health and well-being of the population at large. The articles appear in preeminent scientific journals, such as PLoS One, Radiation Research, International Journal of Radiation Biology, Journal of Radiation Research, Cytokine, FASEB Journal, International Journal of Toxicology, Health Physics, etc.

The institute’s most active research involves external penetrating ionizing radiation. The scientific efforts focus on discovering mechanisms of radiation injury in a search for potential drug targets and to guide medical treatment, assessing radiation injury severity, discovering and developing early preclinical radiation countermeasure candidates, and studying mechanisms and countermeasures for radiation combined with other injury.

Air Force Colonel L. Andrew Huff is the director of AFRRI. He is an alumnus of USU’s School of Medicine (Class of 1988).

AFRRI Mission

The AFRRI mission is to preserve and protect the health and performance of U.S. military personnel through research and training that advance understanding of the effects of ionizing radiation. This mission includes education and training to maintain a pool of qualified radiation biologists; and basic and applied research to identify and perform early development of measures to prevent, assess and treat radiation injury. AFRRI research thrusts include medical countermeasures, diagnosis of injury (biodosimetry), low dose/low dose rate/late effects, internalized radionuclides, and combined injury.

Recent Achievements

Recent activities of AFRRI's Military Medical Operations Department:

Taught the Medical Effects of Ionizing Radiation (MEIR) course to over 1300 Department of Defense personnel annually, in locations around the world.

Maintained a globally deployable Medical Radiobiology Advisory Team (MRAT) of a Health Physicist and a Physician. Their mission is to provide Joint Staffs and the Joint Task Force Commander with expert advice during the response to a radiation incident. AFRRI participated in the 2011 response to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, and was also involved in the response to the 2001 anthrax attacks in Washington DC.

Collaborated in the development of research projects that improve operational capacity and capability for combat forces, to include Medical Countermeasures, Dose Determinations, and Triage & Medical Care algorithms.

Pioneering AFRRI research on the use of growth factors and cytokines as radiation countermeasures recently led to the first FDA approvals of medical countermeasures against ARS: Neupogen® (G-CSF) and Neulasta® (pegylated G-CSF).

Recent achievements by AFRRI researchers:

Development of a panel of seven efficacious radiation countermeasure candidates against acute radiation syndrome (ARS). These agents have low toxicity and practical routes of administration. They are ready for advanced development by other DOD agencies when resources become available. All are at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 3 or above. This is the level for which AFRRI is funded (DOD S&T activities 6.2 and 6.3). One candidate (genistein or BIO-300) is at TRL 5, and another (5-AED) is at TRL 6.

Five of these countermeasure candidates were conceived at AFRRI, and research and development initiated at AFRRI. These are 5-AED, tocols, genistein (BIO 300), ciprofloxacin (CIPRO), and ghrelin.

Two were researched at early stages in collaboration with companies: Ex-Rad® and CDX-301.

Three have FDA Investigational New Drug (IND) status for ARS: 5-AED, genistein (BIO 300), and Ex-Rad®.

Four of these countermeasure candidates are dual use, i.e., approved or being developed for mainstream medical indications:

CIPRO: antibiotic

Ghrelin: cachexia, hemodialysis, seizures, gastroparesis

CDX-301: hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

BIO 300: lung cancer, prostate cancer

Establishment of a panel of blood biomarkers to assess severity of radiation injury and predict outcome. Rapid, easy assessments of radiation injury are required to guide medical treatment, especially in a mass casualty scenario. Successful biomarkers have been identified in a variety of species. Mathematical algorithms were developed that utilize multiple parameters to predict clinical outcome after radiation exposure. AFRRI is working with a private company to produce a portable instrument that can rapidly assess these biomarkers outside the hospital environment.

Demonstration that gene expression, cell function, and cell cycle of endothelial cells and hematopoietic cells are influenced by radiation and by interactions between the two cell types. These interactions involve modulation of MAPKs p38 and p44/42 (ERK1/2), growth factors, angiopoietin 2, activated caspase 3, and apoptosis. These phenomena may affect the success of therapies for ARS and cancer.

Expansion of knowledge of Vitamin E-related molecules (tocols) as radiation countermeasures. It was demonstrated that tocols can be used to mobilize blood-forming cells from bone marrow, and that these cells can be used to enhance survival after radiation exposure.

Elucidation of intracellular signaling molecules involved in injury and recovery from radiation. These signals mediate effects of some of AFRRI's leading radiation countermeasure candidates. An example of this is the demonstration that delta tocotrienol protects human and mouse cells from radiation damage through suppression of IL-1β-induced NFκB/microRNA-30 signaling. Mechanistic knowledge will be required for licensure of countermeasures by the FDA.

Demonstration that delta-tocotrienol enhances survival during the gastrointestinal subsyndrome of ARS, inhibits production of pro-inflammatory factors interleukin-1β and interleukin-6, and suppresses expression of pro-apoptotic protein tyrosine kinase 6 (PTK6).

Identification of countermeasures that enhance survival in animals experiencing combined radiation injury and other injuries (“combined injury” or CI). This work is especially challenging because AFRRI investigators showed most countermeasures effective against radiation alone have been ineffective against CI, and some actually decrease survival after CI. AFRRI demonstrated success for combined injury treatment with the following agents: ciprofloxacin (CIPRO, acting via mechanisms other than its well-known antimicrobial action), ghrelin (a gastrointestinal hormone), and tocol-mobilized blood cell progenitors. This is important information for response planners because a high percentage of radiological/nuclear casualties will be affected by CI.

Determination of which countermeasures enhance survival after exposure to mixed neutron/gamma rays, which would be experienced immediately after a nuclear detonation. Almost all countermeasure work has been done using gamma or X-rays. Neutrons produce a complicated type of injury that is more difficult to repair. Many countermeasures effective against gamma or X-rays are ineffective against mixed neutron/gamma radiation. Response planners must take this into account when preparing for radiological/nuclear incidents.

Establishment of the minipig as a credible model for studying ARS and testing countermeasures. AFRRI's program inspired the creation of a consortium of labs around the country studying ARS in minipigs. Three other laboratories have now independently confirmed AFRRI's finding that the natural history of ARS is extremely reproducible in minipigs, with identical radiation doses producing similar effects across institutions. The US government is exploring the use of the minipig as a large animal model to support licensure of countermeasures by the FDA.

Demonstration that the standard medical ARS countermeasure, G-CSF, produces effects in irradiated minipigs that are similar to what is observed in other animal models and humans.

Discovery for the first time in a large animal model (minipig) of an ARS subsyndrome intermediate between the hematopoietic and gastrointestinal syndromes. This intermediate syndrome is characterized by systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) and febrile neutropenia.

Demonstration that Influenza A virus shows minimal activation of the classical NFkB dependent pathway and no activation of the non-canonical NFkB pathway in murine macrophages. MAPK activation appears to be necessary, and possibly essential, for cytokine/chemokine production by macrophages at early times after influenza infection in the absence of NFkB activation.